you. All right, let's open up our Bibles. We're going to be looking in 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians, and we're going to look at verse number 1. 1 Corinthians and verse number 1. And if you will, let's stand together and we'll read this verse, and then we'll start the message. Amen. Try our best to be done. Amen. As soon as possible. I was going to use that what Brother Shiflett said while I was preaching and all those had to get up and leave to go fix the food. I was going to say, see there, amen, it worked again. But now they've changed it on me, and that ruined the whole message. So I had to come up with something else real quick. So we'll see what happens here. Amen. Appreciate all the good preaching, all the good fellowship, food, place to stay. Amen. Just romantic this morning. Amen. Getting ready in the dark. Amen. Instead of candlelight, it was cell phone light. That's one of the times I was glad to have my cell phone with me. I ain't throwing it my own way. I need the light, amen. Amen, I need the light, so I'm gonna leave mine on, amen. Amen, amen. Amen, amen. You never know when your hotel light's gonna go out, amen. Amen, 1 Corinthians chapter number one and verse number one. If you found your place, say, I'm there! I'm there! This brother back here, he didn't say anything, so we'll give him another minute. Did you find him? Amen, yes! Okay, amen. Paul, with all capital letters, Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. Anybody know anything about Paul? Praise God, the apostle Paul. Amen, man with power could raise people from the dead. Tell you what, if he was working on a tent, he wiped his forehead with a little handkerchief. and laid it down, they could reach and grab it and run and go heal people with it. That's right. It's in the Bible. Amen. This man had God. Amen. I told one preacher, I said, I want you to get up with God dripping off of you. He come back a few minutes later, he said, what does that mean? Paul had God dripping off of him. Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. It was the will of God that Paul be an apostle. Sosthenes, our brother, under the church of God, which is at Corinth. I'll stop my reading right there. I'm interested in this person. I know a lot about Paul. I don't know a whole lot about Sosthenes. Amen. I'm going to have Chris here in just a minute. I told him to be ready. I'm going to have him come up here and tell us all about Sosthenes. It's sure to see his face. Amen. Amen. I'm going to preach for just a few minutes. on the saving of Sosthenes. The saving of Sosthenes. Let's pray, and you can be seated. Father, we love you. Thank you so much for loving us, letting us come to the house of God again today. God, it's been wonderful to be here, to be amongst friends, to be in your house. God, this is not our house. This is not my house. It's not even Brother Dietz's house. This is God's house. This is your house, God, and you let us come in it. How wonderful it is to be in your house. I pray, God, now that you'd please, Lord, take me as I present my body to you, live in sacrifice. I pray, God, that you'd fill me with your spirit. Give me unction and power. God, we'll praise you. We'll thank you, God. Lord, for me, someone lost, I'm praying, God, that they'll be saved. For the saints of God, I pray, God, this will be a special message. They'll never be able to get over. God, it'll make a difference, Lord, when it comes to saving souls. God, we'll thank you and praise you for it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. You can be seated. Amen. According to my Bible, amen, the Apostle Paul says he's there at Corinth. He's writing this letter, and he's referring to someone named Sosthenes as our brother. So we know that Sosthenes is a saved person by the time of the writing of this letter to the Corinthian church. Amen. But what we don't know, amen, is some of the details about how that he got to this point. Now you say, but preacher, Sosthenes is not that important. Why would you pick out somebody like that? Well, is your name in there? What's your name? Drew, is your name in there? See, my name ain't in there either, right? Amen, but Sosthenes' name is in there, right? Amen, and it almost would make it look like, Brother Anthony, amen, that he's got something to do with this letter, right? Amen, amen, Paul called to be an apostle to Jesus Christ, the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother, right? I mean, man, this is a serious thing. This guy, amen, has got God. Amen, this guy's not just a normal man. It's not somebody he didn't even name, but Sosthenes here, amen, is a fellow laborer. Amen, with the Apostle Paul. And I'll tell you something, I couldn't hang with the Apostle Paul. Say amen right there. Amen. Chris, you couldn't hang with the Apostle Paul. Amen. We'd be like John Mark. Woo, I can't handle that. Amen. This is what Paul would do. Every time he'd go somewhere, first place he'd go to, amen, he'd go to the synagogue. He'd go to the Jewish synagogue. He'd go in there and he'd raise such a ruckus. Hey, man, they'd whip him and beat him and throw him into prison. Hey, man, I mean, every time he went to town. Hey, man, can you imagine being John Mark? Hey, John, let's go down there, hey, man, to the synagogue. Not again. Oh, God. Hey, man, finally John Mark left and went home. I don't blame him a bit. I would have too. I'd have cried. I'd have wanted my mama. I'd have went back to sucking my thumb if I had to run around with the apostle Paul. Cause Paul, he wasn't normal. And I want to think sometimes I could be tough. A few times it seems that I've had boldness, but not like Paul. I'm just being honest with you, but not like Paul. Paul would take a beating and count it all Joey. I don't count it Joey. I don't even like getting cussed out. I'll be honest with you. A man flipped his cigarette off my chest and cussed me out, and I went home with my tail between my legs. You say you got a tail between your legs? I wish I had a tail, don't you? They said evolution, and we dropped our tail off, but I'd have liked to have kept mine, wouldn't you? Hey man, think about it. Hey man, you could be working on this, preaching. Your tail could reach up, get this for you. Hey man, give you a drink, put it back. Hey man, you could go to the door. Hey man, you could carry groceries for you. Praise God, they said we evolved and didn't need it anymore. I want two of them, amen. I want one coming out both sides. But considering, you know, they said we dropped them off, I guess. That's about stupid, ain't it? No, we didn't have no tail. So I'll take it back, okay? About the tail between the legs. I'm just saying that I'm not Paul. But Sosthenes can hang with him. Sosthenes could hang with him. Who is this Sosthenes character? Amen. Let's turn over in our Bible to the book of Acts, chapter 18. We're going to find out, and we're going to preach for just a few minutes on the saving of Sosthenes. Yes, sir, preacher, that's not exactly how I pronounce it. Well, you're pronouncing it wrong. I don't know how to pronounce it. We're going to go the best we can. I'm from Dayton, Tennessee. Amen. We still say yunsus and yalsus. Instead of saying it, we say hit and all kinds of stuff. Amen. I went up, preached not too long ago up in Ohio. Had a great meeting. Some folks got saved. I went to eat. Amen. I couldn't even order up there, amen. I tried to talk to them. They said, could you say that again? So what? Anyway, I've got to get going now because I've got to be done by 530. Brother Winslow, I've been waiting for years for somebody to say, you've got plenty of time. Hey, let's look at the scriptures. We're beginning in chapter number 18 of the book of Acts. And we begin in verse number one. The Bible says, after these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth. We're going down just a little bit farther. In verse number four, it says, and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. Sure enough, amen, we see here in verse number four, amen, Paul goes to Corinth. And what does he do? First thing he does, amen, he goes down there to the synagogue. There he is, walks right in. You know, Paul loved the Jew, amen. According to the Bible, he could wish that he were accursed from Christ for his brethren. He loved the Jew so much, amen, and he even said this, Brother Winslow said, amen, he said the spirit bearing witness, amen. He wasn't just saying it, sometimes I say stuff, amen, but he said the Holy Ghost of God will bear witness, amen, that I could wish that I were accursed from Christ for my brethren. He's saying if all the Jews would get saved, he said I'd be willing, amen, to be a curse separated from Christ, amen, and he said the Holy Ghost of God will bear witness to what I said. Boy, that's serious, isn't it? So the apostle Paul was a believer in that Jew first and also to the Greek. And so sure enough, he was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it was the power of God into salvation. To everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also the Greek. And so sure enough, he goes to the Jew first. He goes to the synagogue and when he goes in there, he begins to tell them about Jesus and look at verse number six. And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads, I'm clean. From henceforth, I'll go unto the Gentiles. And so the Apostle Paul, here's the scene, here's the situation that he's in, amen. He's been there at the synagogue, but they have blasphemed against God. And so sure enough, Apostle Paul finally says, I've had it, that's enough, amen, shakes his clothes off. Now I know why Samuel was always doing that. He probably done that at your church, didn't he, Brother Stacey? He come up there and you was wondering why he was doing that, amen? Because he could tell somebody wasn't receiving it, so he just went. I don't think that's maybe why he was doing it, but amen. Anyway, Paul did that. Paul shook his raiment. He did. And he said, that's it. From here on, I'm not coming back in here. I'm going to go to the Gentiles. I'm going to go to the Greeks. Sure enough, Paul, I can see him. Can y'all picture him? I can see him turn around stomping out. Hey man, there was a man there named Crispus. He was the chief ruler of the synagogue. Hey man, you can kind of picture it. He's standing up, hey man, in front of all the people there at the synagogue, but Paul turns and walks off from him. And sure enough, look what happens. Some of y'all are cheating. Look up here at me. Don't y'all be reading. I seen you reading. She said, I'm gonna read and see what happens here. Hey man, you're cheating. This is not open book report here. Amen. Y'all look up here at me. Amen. Amen. So the apostle Paul says, I'm clean. I've told you. You won't believe me, so I'm leaving. Amen. And he departed thence and entered into a certain man's house named Justice, one that worshiped God. Amen. This is a saved man. whose house joined hard against the synagogue. What about this? He walks out, Brother Shifley, and as soon as he gets outside, there's a man named Justice, and his house is right beside of the synagogue. I'm talking about hard against it. In other words, there could have just been a wall right there, and then it would have been his house. And so Paul goes out, he's mad, he's done shook his clothes off, he walks off, he comes around the corner and there's Justice and he hears him worshiping God, amen, so he goes over, introduces himself, amen, and sure enough, he goes in, they start having church right beside the synagogue. I'm talking about just a wall in between. Amen, now let's look at the scriptures. Amen, he departed the inside, went into Justice's house there, which was hard against the synagogue, and Christmas, now who's Christmas? He's the chief ruler of the synagogue. Amen. And this is what he did. Look here. He believed on the Lord with all of his house. Wait a minute. And many of the Corinthians here believed and were baptized. How'd he believe? I got this feeling while they was over there worshiping God and he was in there in that boring synagogue. And they was over there, wow, you could hear them. Oh, praise God, glory to God. Oh, Justice hanging by the chandelier, whoa. Jesus saved, Jesus saved. Amen, Paul's over there, wow. Timotheus, right, man, he was running out in the yard. Come back in, amen. And Silas standing out there, wow, glory to God. Acting like Brother Deach was a while ago. Brother Anthony, wow, glory to God. And I got this feeling maybe that Christmas And according to our Bible, Crispus believed. Hey, man, I can picture it now, and y'all can't tell me that it ain't true, because, hey, man, somehow, someway here, hey, man, Christmas comes undoubtedly running out of the front, and he said, that's it, that's it, I believe it, I believe it, hey, man, and he gets down maybe right in front of the Jewish synagogue, hey, man, the chief ruler, hey, man, of the synagogue, falls down maybe out in the yard or maybe went in Justice's house, and the apostle Paul led him to the Lord Jesus. And Paul even baptized him. Him and Gaius, according to the Bible, amen. Paul said, I didn't baptize none of you besides Crispus and Gaius, amen. So he took Crispus, amen, went and baptized him. The chief ruler of the synagogue got saved. Hooray, it's wonderful. But not in the synagogue, it ain't. Now they got a problem. And their problem is, is now the chief root of the synagogues got saved. They got to do something about this apostle Paul guy. And this Paul guy is winning people to God. Now, they don't believe it like we do. They don't believe it like Paul. They don't believe Jesus is the Son of God. They don't believe Jesus is the Savior. Amen. They don't believe that Him dying on the cross made the way for us to go to heaven. Amen. Because to believe that, they would have to admit that they were the reason and they were part of why He had to be crucified. Amen, because, amen, they were persuading, amen, those in authority to do the very thing, amen, that we read about. So sure enough, amen, I'm looking here in the scripture. I'm gonna give an outline so that Brother Stennett Blue, if he can look down here, be pleased with me, and give me another check, amen. I see, first of all, I see Sosthenes the sinner. Amen, I'm looking over in verse number 17. Bible says, then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue. We're going to stop right there. Don't read the rest of it. Hey, hey, don't read the rest of it. Sosthenes becomes the chief ruler of the synagogue. In other words, brother Tommy, he takes Crispus' place. Sosthenes is going to be the one that's going to deal with all this and fix it all. I looked up Sosthenes' name and the definition of it, and the definition of his name is Savior of the Nation. Oh, praise God. What a name. Savior of the Nation. My name means strawberry. But His name meant Savior of the nation. And Brother Anthony and I got all excited about it until the Holy Spirit of God revealed to me that that was not a good thing. See, it wasn't that he was gonna be one to lead everybody to God at that time, amen. But instead, he was gonna be the one to save that Jewish religion from the Apostle Paul. Can y'all see this beginning to happen? Can you start seeing it coming together? Amen, they've gotta get somebody in there that's stronger than Christmas, because Christmas got saved. His whole family got saved, amen. Paul baptized him. He's right over on the other side of the wall over there with Justice and them, shouting it out with Timothy. Amen. And Silas, amen. They've got a crowd over there. Amen. They're raising up the Corinthian church. Praise God. Amen. And they're over here in this boring synagogue. Amen. But they need somebody. Somebody has got to stop this apostle Paul. And so sure enough, they raised up and brought up a man named Sosthenes. He's gonna be the savior of the nation. He's gonna be the one to stop this Apostle Paul before he gets everybody to that false cult religion that he's got. Amen, following that deceiver, that Jesus character. And so they're gonna save the nation, and they've got the man that can do it. Sosthenes. Sosthenes. Come up here, Sosthenes. Just staying right over in front there. Cheer there. Oh, Sostenese. Don't I look like a Sostenese? Man, they're excited. They've got Sosthenes. He's gonna be the one that's gonna change everything. He's gonna be the one that can out-teach the Apostle Paul. He's gonna be able to out-preach the Apostle Paul. He's gonna be the one to declare, amen, all of the false things that Paul is bringing up before the people. Ain't nobody gonna be getting saved now, amen, because they're all gonna come to the Jewish religion. Amen, they're gonna go back under the law. Amen, they're gonna go back. And they're gonna stay away from that Jesus character because the Savior of the nation, Sosthenes is here. Amen, so I see Sosthenes the sinner. Now wait a minute, you say Sosthenes the sinner? I thought you said he was the chief ruler of the synagogue. He's religious, but lost. If Brother Allen was here, he'd say, oh, he'd say. He'd say, Brother Lee, he never could say my name. I said, Brother Blue, would you tell him my name's Leland and not Lien? And Brother Blue would say, he knows, he just can't say it, Brother Fraser. I said, okay. So he'd say, Brother Leland. He'd take his glasses off. He had one of the meanest looks sometimes. He'd say, hi. He'd talk about Nicodemus living a clean life, and there was nobody in here living as clean a life as Nicodemus. And then he'd say, but he was lost, he'd say. Lost. Sosthenes here was very religious, so religious that they had, hey, they had promoted him to the highest place in that Jewish synagogue, chief ruler of the synagogue, but he was lost. Very religious. Hey, no doubt he could quote the first five books of the Bible. Pharisees could do that. Surely the chief ruler could. Hey man, he's gonna be, hey man, a master of Israel like Nicodemus. Hey man, he's gonna be, hey man, a ruler. Hey man, like Nicodemus. Hey man, he's gonna teach. He's gonna take care of that Paul guy that is deceiving all those people over there. Hey man, and sure enough, he's really mad cause Christmas, hey man, has left. of the Jewish religion, and he's went over there and got saved by the grace of God, and he don't believe any of it, he's gonna stop it. See, Sosthenes, the sinner. Then I see Sosthenes, the Savior. He's gonna try to stop it. Then I go to Sosthenes, the schemer. Amen, now y'all not reading head, are you? Amen, okay. Sure enough, no doubt, Brother Dustin, this is what happens. Amen. He comes up with a plan. It says that the Jews, they come up with this plan. Look at the Scriptures with me. Amen. Christmas, the chief rulers, verse number 8. At the synagogue, he got saved. He and his whole house. Many of the Christians, Corinthians here, believed and were baptized. Amen. Then we go on down. Amen. He had stayed there for a year and six months. Amen. We see, though, that this Christmas, amen, being saved and now Sosthenes taking his place, the Jews, amen. Look at verse number 12 with me. Galio was the deputy of Achaia. The Jews made insurrection, amen. So I need you to focus in on this for just a minute. Now the deputy has come to town. It's not Festus. Amen. Y'all got that, didn't you? Yeah, you still ain't got over that Festus. Don't keep my eyeball peeled on you. Amen. But this wasn't Festus, amen. This was this man named Gallio. Gallio, that's pretty close. If that's not it, amen, sue me, amen. But I believe that's close enough. And sure enough, he came, he's gonna be the judge. So what did they do? Amen, they brought him before, amen. the judgment before him. He's gonna be the judge. And sure enough, Ososthenes has went after the apostle Paul. He's got the Jews to make an insurrection. He's mad because the people are getting saved over here. So he has Paul brought in before the judgment of this deputy. And he starts to hear the case. And no doubt it is the chief ruler of the synagogue bringing the case, amen, and so he's up there, amen, bringing judgment against the Apostle Paul. Paul's standing there, he's innocent, he's right, amen, he's going to be persecuted, amen, but he's done the right thing. I can see Paul standing there before the judge. Sosthenes brings all of this judgment out on him and says, he's teaching things you ought not to teach. He's not telling them right. He goes into all this and Galileo just stops him and says, now wait a minute. If this was a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, according to verse number 14, he said, I'd hear it, I'd bear it. But he said, if it's a question of words and names and of your law, look to it. You look to it yourself. And so sure enough, this deputy, this judge, he said, I'm not going to judge that. He said, y'all judge that yourself. And so sure enough, hey man, this court case is over and he must have slapped the gavel and said, I adjourn this, I'm not gonna judge this. Hey man, y'all deal with it the way you wanna deal with it. But there was some Greeks there. Hey man, Caleb, Caleb and Jeremiah and Drew, could I borrow you for a second? Hey man, and Dustin, come on up here just a second. Hey man, there was some Greeks there and they didn't appreciate too much. Hey man, all this going on, hey man, for no reason. Took their day and so they decided they gonna beat Sosthenes. They gonna beat Sosthenes. That's good, ain't it? Just leave me layin' there. Just leave me layin' there. Y'all go on, guys. You're out. I know because we're acting here, we're playing. We're giving you a dramatized example. But this was reality. According to our Bible, those men beat Sosthenes. All the people there in that courtroom and those Greeks turned loose. Let me tell you something, when those Gentiles did it, now they did it brutally. Y'all remember the Romans, how they did Jesus on the cross? How they did him down at Gabbatha, the place of the pavement? How that whole band of soldiers come in and they took turns beating him in the face until you couldn't even recognize he was human anymore? When you look at that Isaiah chapter 53, amen, And you look at some of those scriptures in 52, his vision's so marred more than any man. Hey man, when you study that, hey man, it says to the point it did not look human. That's what that means. Hey man, they beat the Lord Jesus. When Gentiles would beat somebody, it was a beating. It was not like they slapped him around a little bit. Hey man, they stomped him, they beat him. I mean, he's laying there in a pool of blood. Hey, one minute, he's their hero. Hey man, the Jews are all excited. He's gonna take care of this Paul over here and all those Christians over there. But now, hey man, because the judge wouldn't hear it, the Greeks beat him and they beat him bad. I believe his face is disfigured. I believe his eye is swolled out like here, Brother Wenzel. I believe his mouth is busted, maybe a tooth laid back. I believe his nose is laid to one side, probably broken, blood dripping from it. I believe some of his ribs are probably broken from the stomping that they put on him. And I can see Sosthenes as he lays there in his pool of blood. And the Bible says that there's the judge and he cared for none of it. He didn't even care. And I can see the room empty out. Everybody laughing. All those men that beat him up. Amen. and they all laughed as they went out the door. I looked at the scripture here, amen, and I noticed verse number 18, the Bible says, and Paul, after this, tarried there yet a good while. And I noticed in my scriptures, amen, those italicized words there, after this, amen, I believe that the apostle Paul, amen, brother Bailey, was about to leave, but after this he stayed for a while. Why would he stay? Surely, if it was me and Anthony, we'd say, hey man, the way they beat him, hey man, we're outta here. Hey man, I think we'd have probably run out, got in our Toyota, hey man. Well, maybe they didn't have a Toyota. Hey man, but we'd have got in our horse, got on our horse maybe, or chariot or whatever, and we'd have headed out. We'd say, boy, we don't wanna get no beating like that. But according to the Bible, the Apostle Paul, he decided to stay. Amen, he stayed for a good while. Amen, I see here, Sosthenes, the sinner. Amen, religious but lost. I see Sosthenes, the savior. Amen, but not savior like we would like. Instead, amen, he is the opposite. He's an enmity with God and with the apostle Paul. I see Sosthenes, the schemer. Now as the chief ruler of the synagogue, he brings all this judgment, but it gets turned on him. And now he has nobody. And I see Sosthenes the smitten in verse number 17. They beat him, and they beat him bad. I see him laying there in a pool of blood. You gotta have a little bit of imagination here because, see, God doesn't give us much after this, but it is rich in suggestion. And so I see, Brother Wenzel, that the room empties out. Maybe they all went outside. He's laying in there bleeding. But something tells me that there was a man named Paul that come easing back in. I don't think he was doing maybe like I might have done. What about it now, big boy? Yeah, you was going to get me whooped, but look at you now. Well, maybe I wouldn't have done that. Man, that just cost me three meetings. Let me back that up. Don't laugh. You're beat up, son. Don't you be laughing. I'll kick you in the ribs, bud. No smiling either, amen. Turn and look back towards the back wall. There you go, you're good. It's hard to find good help, Brother Winslow. Hard to find it. But I see the Apostle Paul, the one again that said he loved the Jews so much and he loved his people so much that he'd be willing to give himself for it. Paul knew what it was like to take beatings. Paul was a man that declared that he had been beat with rods so severely that you couldn't even father a child, is what they say about that beating with rods. He had been scourged, amen. He had had his skin filleted from his back, amen. When he talked about himself, though he was not bragging, he was telling, amen, he was whipped and beat more than all of them. He could peel back his shirt like this right here, and this whole crowd right now would go, looking at the scars and the beatings that the Apostle Paul had took. And I can see Paul. I can see him easing back in. I can see him as he goes over to Sosthenes. I can see him coming over to him and trying to pick him up. Sosthenes, Sosthenes, wake up Sosthenes. You okay? Sostenee is beat. I mean, his face is butt-blooded and beat. His eyes may be swelled shut. Maybe one ear is dangling a little bit from where they stomped him. His guts are hurting. His ribs broken. His legs bruised and battered. The Apostle Paul gets him up. I can see it. Can y'all see it? Y'all can't see it over here because y'all in the wrong place, amen. But y'all can see it on the right side over here. I can see him. Hey man, I can see him holding him up against his chest. And I can see him telling him, Jesus loves you, Sasanese. I can tell him, Sasanese, I know you don't understand. You don't understand why all this had to happen. But Jesus loves you. He's the son of God. Amen. I can see him as he's caressing him and holding him, maybe stroking his hair, wiping the blood off of his face, trying to push together that big gash on his forehead. Amen. I can see him as he holds him in tight and loves on him. Apostle Paul says, it's going to be okay. I didn't talk to God about it. Are y'all listening? I can see those red letters in my Bible right there. He said, I done talked to God about it and it's going to be okay. And I can see him as he's loving on Ososthenes. Hey man, it fast forwards a little bit. Come on up brother. Hey man, it fast forwards a little bit in our Bible. Hey man, it ain't too long until Ososthenes. Amen. Apostle Paul's getting him some help. Amen. Maybe not. You look good, Sosthenes. Let's go win some souls, Sosthenes. Somewhere in between these verses in I Corinthians chapter number 1 and verse 1, the apostle Paul, there's no doubt in my mind, a man talked with Sosthenes and Isaac got Sosthenes. I want to be saved. I want what you've got, Paul. I want to know him like you know him. Amen. And somehow, someway, in between these verses, amen, God, the Lord Jesus, using maybe Paul, amen, maybe Christmas came and said, let me tell you, I know how you feel. I was just like you. They tried to get me to do that. They tried to get me to go that direction, but I wanted God. And sure enough, amen, whether it was Paul or whether it was Christmas or whether it was justice or whether it was Timotheus or Silas, I don't know the details, but I know this, somehow, someway, between these little scriptures here, amen, the beating that he took, amen, somebody cared enough about Sosthenes. That they forgave him. Listen now, I need to preach to the church for just a minute. This is our problem. Our problem is that we don't want to forgive. And we think somehow, some way, Brother Al, that we can tell in advance whether a person will even receive a track. God whispers to you, give that person a track. Oh, they don't want no track. God says, give that girl at the drive-thru window at the Sonic, or at the Taco Bell, give her a gospel track. And we, knowing more than God, we decide whether she would take it or not. Oh God, I looked at her and she's got a tattoo of a black widow spider on her neck. She don't want no track. Why? That'd be a waste of paper. Waste of ink to give her something like that while she's so far gone. She's got blue hair and shaved the other side of her head. Amen. And it's bald on one side and blue on the other. Amen. We see them all the time. And somehow, some way we've decided that we can tell who we should show the love of God to and who we should not. What if the Apostle Paul would have done that to Sosthenes? I'll be honest with you. I've had some people do me really wrong. You ever had somebody do you wrong? I've had people really, you ain't, have you? No. You ever had somebody do you wrong? And sometimes, young man, it's hard to forgive somebody. It's really hard. Amen. Everybody loves y'all. I can't preach to y'all. I gotta get over here with somebody. Just Stacy's here. Yeah, we'll get over here with him. Hey man, you ever been done wrong? No. And y'all gotta listen to him tonight. Amen. But if you're normal and you've been a Christian and you've tried to win souls, you've had somebody that's hated you. I've got people that hate me. I've tried to talk to them about Jesus. I've got some that hate me so bad. I've got one that attacks me on the internet all the time. And I don't know exactly who it is, but man, he's constantly putting awful things about me on the internet. People get on there, they'll try to type my name in and this junk will come up and it's awful. It's just awful. He hates me so bad just because I try to tell him about God. And he hates me. I mean, he spreads all kinds of stuff on me. Hey man, I wish I could find him so I could forgive him. You say, wouldn't you like to punch him in the nose, Brother Frazier? No. What I'd really like to do if somehow, someway I could find him, I'd like to cry to him. You see, it's in tears. Some tears. He that goeth forth in weeping. I'd like to sit down with him and tell him that I love him. He'd say, I know what he'd say. You love me after all that I did? The Apostle Paul, ma'am, was a Christian. Now we've got the name Christian and everybody uses it. All the rock stars use it. They're hired dragging down. They've just sung a song about killing your mama and all kinds of stuff. Amen. And then they tell you about how saved they are because they got a new tattoo of a cross on their left arm. Amen. And they're trying to tell you how. But let me let you in on something. Everybody that names the name of Christ is not saved. Amen. Amen. They want to say that they are. Movie stars, ungodly, wicked, evil. Amen. Ungodly. Movies that they're making. Amen. They'll tell you they're Christians though. Amen. Politicians. Amen. They'll tell you they're Christians so they can get your vote. Amen. They'll go through all the motions. But the Apostle Paul, Brother Anthony, was a real Christian. See, for it was the Lord Jesus that was on the cross, and what was the first thing that he said? It was, God, bring down fire upon this place. Destroy this world. I believe, I believe with everything I got, amen, that the angels were present to watch the Lord Jesus on the cross, amen. I believe, amen, that Michael the archangel, amen, probably was sweeping by the Lord Jesus while he was there. His head dropped down, His face beaten beyond recognition. Amen. His body pouring and gushing blood. Amen. His bones staring at Him from the outside. Amen. His kidney, His lungs. Amen. I can see Him there. Amen. Dying on the cross. And I can just picture how that Michael the archangel with the power to destroy it all. Amen. He's swooping around. And he's probably swooped right up beside the Lord Jesus and said, Lord, if you'll say the word, I'll destroy them all. And could have. But he opened not his mouth. Jesus, the first thing that he said, it wasn't destroy them. But instead it was, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do. The apostle Paul went into that judgment hall expecting to take the beating that day. He really expected to take the beating that day. Anywhere else he would go, he'd take the beating. He went in there knowing. Judgment was always against him. But this time it was different. And the real Christian, the apostle Paul, I believe with everything I got, Brother Shiflett, I believe he went back to Sosthenes. I believe he held him in his arms. He told him about how that God, the Lord Jesus, loved him so much that he died in his place. Sosthenes, no doubt bleeding and puffed up and swollen and hurting, amen, quenching, amen, gripping his side, amen. I believe the Apostle Paul told him about the Lord, and I believe Sosthenes called on God. Might have even been right there. Maybe it was, and the Apostle Paul stayed there many days after that. Hey, man, hey, was it going to leave until Sosthenes was saved? What a Christian. Could we do that? If somebody done us wrong like that, if somebody tried to get you in trouble, if somebody tried to get me in trouble, would I be the one that would go to them? And listen, you'd have to forgive them. The apostle Paul, listen to this, you'd have to love them. So preacher, I just don't know about that part where Jesus said, love your enemies. Paul loved Sosthenes. He loved him so much that after he witnessed and saw what happened, he came back to Sosthenes and won him to Jesus. We turn our Bible just a little bit and we see Sosthenes the saint. Amen. Sosthenes the saint. Oh, he was smitten more than one that day. Amen. He was smitten and beaten. Amen. By those Greek men. Amen. But he was also smitten by the Holy Spirit of God. Amen. He was smitten by the servant, the apostle Paul. Amen. He was smitten by, amen, no doubt the scriptures that Paul shared with him. Amen. And his heart. Amen, was turned from religion without Jesus to being born again child of God. Sosthenes. I turn the pages and I'm done. I see Sosthenes. Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes, our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you, amen. Sosthenes, from that point forward, where he took the beating, he got saved, and he worked with Paul, winning souls. And so when he wrote this first letter, and some would say this could possibly have been a letter before this, reference to, but the first Corinthians in our Bible, we find Sosthenes walking alongside with Paul, loving Paul and Paul loving him. And it never would have happened if it had not been for forgiveness. I'm not gonna tell you that it's easy to forgive somebody that does you wrong. And Pete, I'm gonna let you in on something. Amen, there's gonna come a time in your life, if Jesus don't come back soon, somebody's gonna do you real wrong. Really bad wrong. I've had stories made up about me. I don't know how they could even, what an imagination. But God has given me a heart to forgive. How can I help anybody if I'm not willing to forgive? I'm gonna ask you something. I'm fixing to be done. I'm gonna ask you a question. I don't want you to look around at somebody else. I don't want you to wonder who Brother Fraser is trying to talk to, but I wanna ask you something. Is there anybody that has done you wrong and you've got to opt with that. You think of it all the time. They've done you wrong. Bitterness, listen, is like a seed. When it takes into the ground, that seed begins to germinate, they call it, and it begins to change. It begins to turn into something else. I've learned over the years that the person that has bitterness, it starts off very small, but it grows into hatred. Christians are not to hate. Maybe somebody's done you wrong, but Christians are not to hate. Maybe there's somebody in this building, because I'm going to tell you something. When I get done here preaching, I turn it over to the preacher, I'm going to be first one down here unless you come now, because I don't want to hate nobody. I don't want to hate nobody. I don't want to be so unforgiving that I can't forgive anybody. I want to forgive everybody. I don't want to carry nothing with me. I don't want no bitterness. I don't want no hatred. I don't want no enemies. Hey man, if somebody's done me wrong, oh God, I need your help. I need your help, God. I need you to help me like you did Paul. To forgive. so that I can be a servant to win somebody like a Sosthenes. I'm closing with this preacher, but I believe Sosthenes. I believe he was one of those that probably followed around Paul and said, if it wasn't for Paul, I'd be lost. If it wasn't for Paul, I'd be in religion. I'd be caught up in all that wickedness and I'd be lost. If it wasn't for Paul, I'd be going to hell. And I believe Sosthenes said, this is my best friend. Though I tried to get him beat. You got somebody in your mind? I asked a preacher just a while back. He called me up, Brother Bailey. And he went on for 43 minutes about how this preacher had done him wrong. And he was ranting and raving and mad and angry. threatening. When he got done, he said, you've heard, you've listened to me for 43 minutes. What do you got to say? And I said, can't you be done wrong? I said, Paul could be done wrong. Peter could be done wrong. They crucified his wife in front of him. And I said, Jesus could be done wrong. I said, can't you just be done wrong? Got real quiet on the phone. Wasn't too long until there was a knock on my door and I opened up the door and he stood there crying. He said, I've been talking to God. He said, I can't carry all that with me. What about you? Is there somebody that's done you wrong? And can you forgive them? Our Bible says this, if we will not forgive our brother that sinned against us, God will not forgive us that sinned against Him.